A Special Day
by Wendymypooh
Summary: The Coopers celebrate Brian's 8th birthday.


A Special Day

By

Wendy Mills

Copyright September 2001

Chapter 1

Charlotte Cooper bent down before the large black stove in her kitchen and removed two round cake pans. Sweet scented steam wafted up from the dark tops of the cakes as Charlotte placed them onto the countertop to cool. She then closed the oven door and returned to the task of peeling potatoes for mashing. Running the only boarding house in Colorado Springs was a time consuming at best and required a lot of hard work on her part and that of her three children as well. There were always rooms to clean, linens to wash, meals to prepare, animals to be fed, garden to be tended and boarders fussing to listen to. Although her life was hard one, Charlotte could always find something to be thankful for in each day that passed. Charlotte knew that most of the things that she found worthy of thanking the Lord for was the three miracles he had blessed her life with: Matthew, 15, Colleen, 12, and 7-year-old. They were the only good things that had come from her marriage to Ethan.

Not wanting to dredge up any unhappy memories, Charlotte instead concentrated on how happy Brian was going to be with his birthday festivities. Chocolate cake with caramel frosting was his favorite as was the roasted chicken, ears of corn, mashed potatoes and buttermilk biscuits. If it had only been the four of them eating then that simple meal would have been enough to feed them. Right now though she had three full-time boarders who paid an extra quarter a day for meals and so she'd added squash, fresh berries in cream and two apple pies for dessert.

She and the children and a few family friends would celebrate Brian's birthday after the boarders retired to their rooms for the evening when she had all the potatoes peeled, washed and quartered, Charlotte placed them in a pot of salt water on the back of the stove. Next she moved onto kneading the bread dough and biscuits. She glanced up at the clock above the stove and wondered what was keeping collar and Brian at school.

Seven-year-old Brian cooper sat on the steps of the building that served both as the church and school to the citizens of Colorado Springs. He brushed back a strand of his sandy blond hair from his face and wandered what was keeping Colleen so long. He was anxious to get home in time to watch his ma frost his cake. As he sat and waited his mind danced with images of the toys he hoped were among the gifts he would get for his birthday: the two-toned spinning top that spun by itself, the shiny black engine, mesh bag of marbles, silver penknife and wooden checkers. Thoughts of toys left him as he went over the presents he was sure he'd get: a pair of new pants, shirt, writing tablet, pencils, new primer or dime novel.

He was just about to get up and start for home when Colleen came out of the church and bounded down the stairs. She paused as the bottom of the stairs long enough to tell him to hurry and started down the path that led into town. Brian jumped up and hurried to catch up with her.

"What took ya so long?" Brian asked when he caught up to her.

"I had to ask Rev. Johnson for help on figuring out a horrid math problem that he assigned as homework." Colleen explained as they walked.

"As smart as ya are why ya got to study?" Brian said.

"I'm smart 'cause I do my homework. You do yours and maybe you'll be smart too." Colleen assured them as they neared the boarding house.

"Brian, oh Brian." An older male voice called from behind them.

Brian and Colleen turned around to see Loren Bray, the owner of the General Store, walking toward them. Mr. Bray was one of the older citizens in Colorado Springs and was looked on by the Cooper children, especially Brian as a surrogate grandfather. In his grizzled hands Mr. Bray held a funnel shaped package in one hand and a square one in the other. As he neared the siblings Mr. Bray held out the two packages to Brian.

"Happy Birthday Brian." Mr. Bray said.

Brian's face lit up as he took the packages from Mr. Bray. "Thanks Mr. Bray." Brian exclaimed and flung his arms around the older man's neck.

Mr. Bray grew flustered at the embrace and awkwardly patted Brian on the back. Then he drew away from Brian. "I'd best be getting on back to the store. See to it that you don't eat all that candy at one time."

"I won't." Brian called after him.

Chapter 2

Charlotte looked up from the chicken she was basting as Brian and Colleen entered the boarding house through the kitchen door. At the questioning look her ma gave them Colleen spoke.

"Sorry we're late ma. I had to ask Rev. Johnson for some help with a math problem. I'll go put my stuff in my room and come help you straight away."

Before Charlotte could answer Colleen exited the kitchen and dashed down the hallway toward her bedroom. Charlotte finished basting the chicken, closed the oven door and straightened up

"Look ma, Mr. Bray gave them to me." Brian said excitedly, showing her his presents. "Can I open them?"

"Don't you think you should wait until we're celebrating your birthday?" Charlotte questioned.

Brian thought a moment. "I think I'll wait. Can Mr. Bray have cake and milk with us?"

"You can go ask him if you want." Charlotte replied. "Tell him we'll be having it around seven o'clock."

"Right now?" Brain asked.

Charlotte smiled. "Go on. But I want you to come right back. You still have chores that need doing."

"Yes'm." Brian said hurrying out the door.

Charlotte watched him go and gave an inner groan as she realized that he hadn't closed the door. She crossed to the door and closed it just as Colleen returned to the kitchen. Colleen took an apron down from a peg in the wall and tied it around her waist. Seeing the fresh squash on the cutting clock, she immediately picked up the knife and began slicing it for boiling. Mother and daughter worked in companionable silence as they finished preparations for supper.

Brian returned a short time later wearing a wide grin and happily reported that Mr. Bray would be over for cake. Charlotte put him to work setting the table and then hauling in milk, butter and other items in from the cold pit out back. Then as she and Colleen began to place dishes onto the table, Charlotte sent Brian upstairs to alert their boarders that supper was ready. Soon all the food was on the table, the boarders were seated and so were Charlotte, Colleen and Brian. Charlotte wondered briefly what was keeping Matthew from arriving home and decided that they wouldn't wait for him to start eating.

Chapter 3

Charlotte had barely said grace and everyone began serving themselves, when Olive Bray hurried into the dining room. Fear rose up inside of Charlotte as Olive beckoned to her and then left the room quickly. Charlotte rose from her chair and started out of the room after Olive, instructing Colleen and Brian to continue their meal. Matthew had been working as a wrangler on Olive's ranch for the past year and a half and had suffered many minor injuries during as a result to his job. Charlotte lived with a constant fear that the next time he was injured it would be much more serious. Added to that fear was the reality that Colorado Springs didn't have a doctor as yet and she would be left to care for her son's injuries as best she could.

She arrived in the hallway just in time to see Olive knock once, then twice on Matthew's closed bedroom door. She joined Olive just as it opened and Matthew himself stood in the doorway. Relief flooded through Charlotte as she and Olive was ushered quickly the room and Matthew closed the door behind them.

"What's all the secrecy about?" Charlotte inquired. "Olive scared me nearly to death barging in like she did and acting so mysteriously."

Olive laughed. "And it showed. "I'm sorry Charlotte but Matthew swore me to secrecy and so I had to come up with some way to catch your attention."

"Well you sure caught it." Charlotte replied. " So are you going to let me in on what's going on?"

"Sure Ma. The past couple of weeks that I've come home late from Miss Olive's wasn't exactly working. Well I was working on something, just not wrangling. I was working on this." Matthew said crossing over to the table where a large bundle lay covered by a sheet. He reached out and grabbed a length of cotton in his fist and pulled the sheet off of what it covered.

A full-scale model of Colorado Springs sprawled out over the table. All the buildings were there, along with carved stick figures of people and animals. Each building was detailed to look exactly like the buildings on Main Street down to the tiny signs above them. The only difference that Charlotte could see was the miniature train set that ran a complete circle around the town by a shiny engine. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at the gift that her oldest son had made for his brother. It filled her heart immensely to see how well her children got on with one another and loved each other.

Catching sight of the tears shining in his ma's eyes as she looked up from the model and over at him, Matthew misinterpreted them and hastened to apologize for not telling her the truth about what he was doing.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner Ma. I just didn't know if I'd get it done in time. I did have to spend some of my wages on nails and cloth and paint, but Aunt Olive bought the engine and train track and-"

Charlotte hurried to put him at ease. " No, it's okay. It's beautiful Matthew. Brian's gonna be thrilled. Now why don't we go eat before supper gets cold?"

"I am rather hungry." Matthew admitted.

Olive seconded his announcement and the threesome made their way to the dining room and joined the others at the table.

Chapter 4

Once the table was cleared of supper dishes, the leftover food put away, and the boarders retired to their rooms for the night, preparations for celebrating Brian's birthday began. Matthew took Brian off to Brian's room to play a game of cards while the decorating was being done. A special tablecloth was laid upon the table along with Charlotte's best china, glasses and coffee cups. A fresh pot of coffee was brewed for the adults and then placed on a hot pad on the table next to a pitcher of cold milk. Charlotte set the cake down before Brian's place at the table and then Colleen was sent to get Matthew and Brian. Mr. Bray arrived precisely at seven o'clock and on his rear came the mountain man Sully and his wolf.

Brian was given the seat of honor as the others gathered around to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. Then the cake was cut and past out, to which many compliments on how good it was heaped at Charlotte. His eyes took in the huge stack of presents that awaited his opening and quickly finished his cake. He selected the package that Mr. Bray had given to him besides the one that held candy and he tore into it. Out popped the two-toned top he had been dreaming about earlier. One by one he unwrapped his presents, always being mindful to thank the person who had given it to him, until all the presents were opened. Along with the candy and top he had received from Mr. Bray, were a pair of pants, shirt, tablet and pencils he received from his Ma, he got a hand-carved whistle from Sully and a book about Tom Sawyer from Colleen. It wasn't until all the gifts were opened that he realized that he hadn't received a present from Matthew or their Aunt Olive.

As Matthew left the room, Olive drew a handkerchief from her skirt and tied it around Brian's head, over his eyes. Matthew returned to the dining room a few minutes later carrying his present, to which those who hadn't seen it yet let out gasps of surprise. Matthew lowered the miniature town onto the table in front of Brian and gestured to Olive to remove Brian's blindfold. Just as he had hoped, Brian let out a loud "Wow" and climbed up onto his chair to examine his gift more closely. He surveyed the town with a careful eye and quickly located the buttons that operated the train.

"Thanks Matthew." Brian exclaimed, throwing his arms around his older brother. "Thanks everybody for making this my best birthday ever!"

The End


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